Lights, Winter and egg laying

[roosmom]

beckysuzp, they will get used to the timer, but if it makes you feel better to have a skylight.... lol. Since you read this whole post then you know that there is some question as to whether they are laying well because of the light I am providing or because they are good birds for winter egg laying...That will be an experiment for next winter. NO light at all! Anyway, it could be that your chickens are not good winter layers, what kind did you say they were? Are they supposed to be good winter layers? I would check into that first. Then I would amend my lights and stuff if the answer is yes. If the answer is no or probably not, then I would save my money for some chickens that do lay in the winter. Let me know how it goes and what answers you find out.
Cool beans JMajors!
Curliet I couldnt agree more, garage floors are darn cold and damp all the time. It doesnt matter if the garage is attached or not, cold and damp. The plywood will help but still, ya I agree. The red lamp, I dont know if it would help with the dampness or not.
Do the appliance bulbs go out? If not then you should set your alarm clock to go off at 230am and go and see if they are sleeping. If they are sleeping, wonderful, but if they arent and they are up roaming around....well you might want to have the appliance lights go out too. So they are getting as good a nights sleep as you, lol.
Please let me know about the appliance bulbs and what you find out. Are your chickies partying 24-7?

 

[roosmom]

26 eggs today. 11-30-08

 

[Chick_a_dee]

I've got mine on 14 hours a day of artificial light, a 100W bulb. They like it more inside, and will stay in when the weather is overcast, and all go out when it is sunny out.

 

[beckysuzp]

Hi there, the kinds of chickens I have should all be listed in my signature - save me from typing it again!

I'll have to check whether any of them are good winter layers. Thanks, Becky

 

[speckledhen]

Out of my flock of 40-something hens, 37 girls have laid at least one egg. Out of 37 currently laying, I have been getting 16-20 eggs per day without supplemental light. My ages are varied, from three years old down to about 20 weeks old, so that helps since the brand new layers usually lay through the winter after they begin, at least in my experience. If they were all two to three years old, I probably wouldn't be getting that amt of eggs now.

 

[raizin]

I have read this whole thread and have never had chickens before this year. I got some new pullets a couple of months ago and had to use a heat lamp. I burned out a red light bulb and now have a white light bulb. All my chickens are in the same area. My egg production had dropped off from 5-7 eggs/day to 1-2 eggs/day before the light. After the light it jumped back up to the higher production level. My question is the light is on all of the time. I am trying to find out about the "burn out" and other health issues for the chickens. I truly care about their health, but they are for meat and eggs. I just killed four extra roos this weekend and made a great medieval chicken recipe for our company. So is their an expert or a scientific paper I could read that would sway me one way or another? What do major production places practice? Any information would be wonderful and thanks in advance.
BTW, Buff Orpington and Americunas are my favorite!! Great temperments.

 

[speckledhen]

You wouldn't want to pattern your management practices after commercial operations. They replace their hens usually every two years and they keep them producing constantly. The bottom line is $$$ and they dont care about longevity, per se. I have read articles about the light factor, but cant recall where they are at the moment. I do know that in researching spontaneous ovarian tumors/cancer in humans, they study laying hens because apparently, they are the only ones who develop those like humans do. I've lost four of my hatchery hens to internal laying and a fifth is on her way out now. They were all heavy producing hatchery girls and I only supplemented light the very first year. I'll never do it again. Did it their first winter, but not last year or this year-they are already programmed for burn out, so I dont want to add to that in any way.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
Genetics really do play into the issue of "burn out" in layers.

Here's what I find with the commercial outfits: 17 hours light is considered a maximum beyond which, no benefits are gained.

Perhaps, mother was right - we really do need, at least, 8 hours of sleep every night.

Steve

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Quote:
By heavy producing do you mean like leghorns or a commercial type bird?

 

[raizin]

thanks digits for the article. I am going to decrease the light for my upcoming pullets. They are nine weeks old and are soon to enter that "critical" development phase. I think they are old enough to stay warm and I just let them in with the other chickens on the same day I killed off all of the extra roos. So I have 9 layers, one roo and 12 nine week old pullets. thanks for the information.